Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson spoke to the media on Monday about coming out of a bye week and preparing for North Texas, one of the best C-USA teams.
Nick Suss, Hattiesburg American

North Texas quarterback Mason Fine (6) looks for an open receiver to pass to against Southern Mississippi first the half of their NCAA college football game in Hattiesburg, Miss., Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)(Photo: Rogelio V. Solis, AP)

HATTIESBURG — Southern Miss defensive coordinator Tim Billings knows what his team is preparing for this Saturday.

"They're the best offense we've played this year," Billings said Monday about North Texas, USM's upcoming opponent. "You can talk about Auburn and their players as far as offensively, but this is a team that put up 47 points on Arkansas. . .by far they are the most dynamic offense that we've faced to date."

Statistically, it's hard to refute Billings' point. North Texas is averaging 41.5 points per game this season, the best mark in Conference USA and a top-20 mark in the FBS. The Mean Green have one of the most dominant passing offenses in college football, led by quarterback Mason Fine and his 15 touchdowns with just one interception. Fine is averaging 319 passing yards per game, putting him just ahead of USM's Jack Abraham for the best mark in the league and eighth in all of college football.

Football analytics site Pro Football Focus graded Fine as the seventh-best quarterback in the country through his first five games, ranking fifth in the country in passer rating and third in adjusted completion percentage while playing for a team that led the country with 18 drops. And this was all before Fine threw for 294 yards and two touchdowns on Saturday against UTEP.

Billings said Fine reminds him of Chad Pennington, the second-most accurate passer in NFL history and a quarterback who played for Billings at Marshall in the late 1990s. Naturally, Billings said stopping North Texas' dynamic offense begins and ends with slowing down Fine, if only there were a blueprint for how to do so.

"No one's done anything yet to disrupt him," Billings said. "It's one of those things where he can run around and you can try to play coverage because he throws it so well, but then he just moves around because he's athletic and he'll finally find somebody open. And if you try to blitz him, he finds somebody open and throws it right well. Hopefully we can make him make a mistake or two. I guess he has. In six games he's made one mistake. He's thrown one interception. We'll just do what we do."

Billings said the hope is that Southern Miss can put pressure on Fine with three or four pass rushers, keeping seven or eight defenders in coverage to lock down North Texas' dynamic receivers. Sacking Fine hasn't been impossible this season. The Mean Green have allowed 11 sacks in six games.

But beyond that, the goal is to take advantage of mistakes when they're available. Billings remembers one moment from USM's loss to North Texas a year ago where Fine threw a pass directly into the hands of one of his defenders and the defender dropped the ball. That won't be an option Saturday if Southern Miss wants to pull off the upset.

Nor will allowing long drives. Southern Miss allowed nine third-down conversions and four fourth-down conversions (on four tries) against North Texas last season. All four of UNT's fourth down conversion led to touchdowns, giving the Mean Green 28 points in a game they won by 15.

Forcing turnovers, rushing the passer and getting off the field on game-changing downs are sound strategies. But there's no catch-all to slowing down Fine and the North Texas offense. That's why Billings said he's going into this weekend willing to try anything.

"We'll have to have a plan B and plan C and plan D ready for this guy," Billings said. "I don't think there's just one way to stop him. Obviously that's what we have to do. That's our goal."